Somebody please adopt me!

[sunshinelady]

I would like a big sister. Please! I need help with a regimen.

I just realized that I've been here for a year with no progress. Starting to feel like something is wrong with me.

 

[Qualitee]

AAAWWW (((HUGS)))

 

[wheezy807]

Lol, we all can adopt you. That's what we are here for, to help. Describe your hair type, what you have been doing currently and what the problem is. Is the problem no progress? Surely if you have new growth your hair is growing, your problem must be retaining length.

 

[InquiringMind]

I'm sorry you haven't had progress. I'm not the best to take advice from but, I can do what I can. What's ur current regimen?

 

[sunshinelady]

Lol, we all can adopt you. That's what we are here for, to help. Describe your hair type, what you have been doing currently and what the problem is. Is the problem no progress? Surely if you have new growth your hair is growing, your problem must be retaining length.

Thanks sis, I love all y'all, but I need a go-to person. Here's my story :

My hair type is 4b.
After being natural for 7 years, I had a stylist texlax my hair with SE lye last year and lost a huge chunk of it. I have like a 4 inch wide area where I lost so much that I thought it might be health-related. I have about 1.5 inches of hair in that area. I'm able to cover it with a phony pony and I have slowly been trimming off the texlaxed part. My hair changed colors and is currently limp and crackly dry. It is about neck-length right now. I went to a derm and he told me he thought it was the chemical that caused the breakage and recommended biotin for slow growth.

Since I've been here, I've jumped on every bandwagon (baggying, aveda, megatek, ayurvedic, oil rinses, mn, mtg, bt, msm, silica (did I leave anything out?)) that has come by and that is probably the reason for my current state. When I came here, my biggest struggle was getting past shoulder length. Even with wearing wigs over cornrows for a year, I still never got past shoulder length. I thought I wasn't retaining length, but since I can see my new growth now, I know that it is growing really, really slowly. I'm not even sure that I am getting .25 a month.

I cowash daily (I really like Lustrasilk Aloe vera cholesterol) and wear it in a wet bun with a phony pony most of the time. I also seem to have uncontrollable split ends. I'm obviously doing something really wrong.

For some reason, talking about this makes me feel really vulnerable

ETA: sorry for the long, dense post.

 

[Qualitee]

I noticed the air drying doesnt work for everybody make air drying is breaking off your hair. And stop jumimg on bandwagons because at first they do work but at the end of the day you'll end up leaving it. IMO

 

[temfash]

Personally, I think maybe you need to put your hair in a protective style like braids twists/canerows for a while say 2/3 weeks at a time to give your hair a rest. Moisturise daily and wash or cowash as you please. I think the problem could be overmanipulation and since your hair is fragile your not retaining growth. I'm no expert but I hope this helps.

 

[MzOptimistic]

Personally, I think maybe you need to put your hair in a protective style like braids twists/canerows for a while say 2/3 weeks at a time to give your hair a rest. Moisturise daily and wash or cowash as you please. I think the problem could be overmanipulation and since your hair is fragile your not retaining growth. I'm no expert but I hope this helps.

You gave excellent advice. I think SL need to do protective styling. DC/wash once a week. Co-wash a couple days a week and keep those ends moisturzied and baggied but hey that's just my opinion

ETA: Sunshine Lady you're co washing daily. You should baggy your ends and then put a phony pony over the baggy. This should help you with growth retention and split ends but you will have to stay consistent and never slack up. I can actually say that baggying 24/7 is the best thing that I could have ever done to my hair. (thanks DSD for having a tutorial in your fotki) My hair is growing and retaining ALL the growth and it's very healthy. I never EVER use heat. Hell, I never wear my hair down. Unless, I'm being fast of course. LOL and that's rarely;-)